Here we are, on the road: We’re in Santa Rosa, CA

April 28, 2013 Lorraine’s report

Well, it is with a heavy heart I said “Goodbye” to Susy and Kaitlyn this afternoon. They came up from the bay area to Santa Rosa, CA to spend the weekend with us. Thank you Susy for coming to see us, we appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Susy and K came in on Saturday around 2ish and we took off to go into Sonoma. Susy enjoys membership or something at one of her favorite wineries, so she gets into the wine tasting area and pays nothing. Papa watched Katie, and Susy & I went into the winery. We enjoyed the free samples, I mostly liked what Susy did.

Afterwards we walked around the square; Papa took Katie to the park and Susy and I did the tourist thing. We did find a new ice cream scoop, mine got broken a few months ago when we got the new freezer. It was just fun being out on such a great day.

The only thing that stands out for me of the previous week was my foot aspiration, where the doctor froze it and took out “Stuff” so it wouldn’t hurt so much. Was not fun, but it’s better.

We left on Thursday, came here to the fairgrounds and set up. Chuck took us a really long way into Napa; like through the river and such. The road there curves really hard, I was glad we weren’t towing in our rig, it was really pretty bad.

Today we went into Bodega Bay. Except they had a festival going on and the roads were really crowded with people. We loved the beach, Katie wanted to play, but it was too cold for us to stay any longer. We loved the beach.

Friday night Katie said we should have a sleep over at our coach; so we did. Papa made us popcorn and we watched movies, until it was way late. Of course, even though Katie was up late, she was up about her normal time. Oh, to be so young

It is amazing how much business here is generated by growing grapes; this area is pretty booming; I’m not too sure how it is for the rest of the time, but lots of people come up on the weekends.

That’s it for me. Have a great week everyone….

Lorraine

4/28/13 Chuck’s report

We are in Sonoma County, home of Napa and all the wineries even though we don’t really drink much wine. We were in the area about 10 years ago when Lorraine’s brother got married in Napa and we have talked about coming back but never was able to fit it into our schedule until now.

Let’s see, last Sunday Lorraine and Susy were able to go shopping together, I took Katie to the park until her dad came by to pick her up for the night. Lorraine picked up KFC for dinner, Mark and Katie came by and had dinner with us too.

Monday was a quiet day, we went to Costco and Wal-Mart then picked Katie up after school and Nana and her had a good time playing and such.

Tuesday was another doctor day for us. Lorraine had developed a ganglion cyst on the top of her foot and had a appointment with a foot doctor. He looked it over and decided to aspirate it. First he had to numb it, then sucked out the cyst from three different places. She decided she should probably rest it and put ice on it so I brought her back to the rig and got her set up.

I then took off for my visit to the doctor, just an annual checkup. Everything was ok, no problems found. The doctor renewed all my prescriptions for the year and I was even able to pick up some of them from the pharmacy there, the rest will be mailed to me. I also dropped off my new CPAP machine, it wasn’t reading the SD disk but they were able to just reprogram it and everything seems fine.

It was late by the time I fought my way through all the traffic and got to Katie’s school and picked her up. But Nana and her made to best of their short time together and had a good time. Lorraine made a good dinner for us, we had BBQ ribs and rice.

Wednesday was our last scheduled day with them so before we picked up Katie Lorraine did the last of the laundry and I shampooed the carpets in the coach. We picked up Katie and once again Nana and her had a great afternoon. Later we met Susy at a BBQ place for dinner.

Thursday we left Santa Clara and pulled into Sonoma County Fairground RV park. This place looks like an outdoor movie drive-in. It’s all gravel with a few trees but it is quiet, no freeway, airport or train around. After we got set up, we decided to drive over to check out the Napa Elks lodge, we may move over there later this week.

Boy are there lots of grapes and wineries in this area. Some of them are huge and look expensive. We toured 4 or 5 of them 10 years ago, including Francis Ford Coppula’s. Yes, he was the big movie director, I think The Godfather was one of his biggest. You can tell it costs lots of money to build and maintain these places, guess they make it back when they sell the wine.

Friday we got going, stopped off at Costco to get gas and at a barbershop so I could get my hair cut. Then Lorraine wanted to try one of the casinos here. I did my normal thing, lost $20 but Lorraine won more than I lost once again, yea. We did go to their buffet but it was only 4:00 so they didn’t have their dinner stuff out yet. But we did get our fill then returned back to the coach.

Saturday we were planning on Susy and Kaitlyn coming up to stay with us and do some touring of the area. They got here about 2 or so then we headed out to the town of Sonoma. Lorraine and Susy walked a few of the shops while Katie and I stayed at the park in the center of town. Later we met them for dinner a one of the many restaurants around the park. We then called it a day and returned to the coach. I set up the spare bed for them and we all had a quiet night.

This morning, Sunday, we hung around the coach most of the morning then headed out to visit Bodega Bay, where the Alfred Hitchcock movie, THE BIRDS, was filmed years ago. There was some festival going on and traffic was terrible but we did manage to stop by the beach so the gals could get their feet in the water. I think I managed to get it on film, if so, there will be pictures of it later.

We continued driving around the bay and even into the State Park, a nice place but not for me. Besides, I don’t think we could afford to buy anything even if we wanted to live there. But like I say, a nice place, glad we visited.

We got back to the coach and had a late lunch with Susy and Katie before they had to head back to the bay area. They left around 4 and just now called to let us know they made it home ok.

The weather here is more like what we were used to back in Washington. Once again, all the green comes with a price, it rains lots here in the winter. We are still in the foggy area of the bay, clouds every morning with the temperatures in the low 50s. But once the clouds/fog burn off, it warms up, got into the 80s today. Forecast is for a bit warmer temperatures as the week progresses.

We don’t have firm plans for leaving here, in fact, we are paying daily until we make up our minds. Like I said, we may move to Napa to the Elks Lodge there this week or may head back to the Sacramento River Delta. We have been there before and it pretty nice. Plus Susy and Katie may be able to visit us again next weekend if we stay close by, that’s a plus.

I’ve been working out a travel plan for when we actually leave here in mid-May, headed for Minnesota in late June. We’ve been wanting to visit more spots in New Mexico and we haven’t had the coach in Oklahoma, Kansas or Nebraska yet. We are thinking of correcting those deficiencies and make those places our travel plans. But then again, there are other routes too, we’ll sort of play it by ear, tough life, huh!

Ok, now for some pictures and get this posted, much later than normal but at least it will be posted on Sunday.

Flowers alongside the road.